Unsatisfactory

There is a hole in her eyes tucked just inside her pupils.

Light trickles through but nothing swallows it up, a blindspot.

And when a stranger smiles, the glint of light off their teeth

Falls right into gaping nothingness,

Forgotten faster than the moment occurred.

****************************************

She smiled back with dimples and crinkling eyes but it was too late.

The stranger has written her off as unsavory.

He's scowling already, hands shoved far into his pockets

As though to avoid becoming contaminated with that emptiness

That reaches unfathomable depths.

****************************************

Her hands are cold and when she firmly grasps the handshake of opportunity,

It's impossible to ignore the recoil of warmth against her palm.

Strangers stagger back and wipe their hands against their slacks,

Clucking their tongue, tugging on their suit jackets,

And spewing formalities to be rid of unidentified monster dawdling in their office.

****************************************

Tuesdays come and go, each one with a trip to the coffeehouse.

Small talk falls away, every smile evaporating as the rasped order

Floats through the air, shimmering with that same black-hole hunger.

Coins are shoved at her, never placed in hand.

Uncontrollably, the cashier jitters away, looking anywhere but at the walking ghost.

****************************************

The floorboards scream beneath her and the keys to her keyboard stick

To avoid touching her fingers.

Fine china breaks when she smiles at its design to spare itself from a night

Spent beside this creature, undeveloped in soul and perfectly uncouth.

She pulls falling blankets across her shoulders, eventually sleeping in the cold.

****************************************

It is unbearable to be unseen.

Her thirst for normalcy remains unquenched as strangers scuttle away,

Paving an unpleasant and lonely path ahead of her as she sways forward.

At last, she gathers herself around the fire in an empty library and stares

Into its beckoning depths wondering how it was that she became so

Unsatisfactory.